Based on the popular Italian TV serial Sandokan (1976), the original 6 hour mini-series introduced handsome Indian actor Kabir Bedi to Europeans, and later spawned a feature-length film in 1977, with composers Guido and Maurizio De Angelis returning to score the project with their inimitable main theme.

As is typical with import CDs of foreign TV productions, any English language versions have long since disappeared from any kind of distribution, or they never reached North American shores, making it tough to place a score in its original context.

Unlike the composers' score for Soldato Di Ventura, Il / Soldier of Fortune, the wealth and length of alternate and unused takes on this premiere CD actually provide a needed body of diverse variations, so this album is far less repetitive and frustrating than prior De Angelis CDs. Action cues like “Ritorno a Mompracem” have long stretches of percussion and sitar with periodic theme restatements by strings, and it's obvious these cuts were meant to underscore elongated chase sequences, battles, and hand-to-hand combat, but they're well-placed between other theme variations and alternates, so the album actually has some dramatic peaks and valleys.

Those in love with the Sandokan theme with relish every version via strings, solo woodwind, with vocals (in Italian, with some really lovely harmonics), and the film's opening titles; each version demonstrates how the fusion of a quasi-ethnic theme for a period character performed by contemporary pop orchestra isn't a new concept. The combination of electronics and orchestra isn't even an issue anymore when composers are asked to evoke a specific historical period and geographic locale, and it's intriguing to hear the orchestral pop style that was in vogue, and was perfectly acceptable, in 1977. The De Angelis' theme is also extremely affectionate towards the character, and it's no surprise it remains a strong statement on a furious, swashbuckling hero.

Included on the CD is a pop-rock version of “Sandokan,” with some funky acoustic guitar riffs between electric bass and keyboards, and a bonus cut of “Mompracem” without the lead vocal track (but retaining the chorus section). The source materials are in pretty decent shape, and the CD mastering preserves the sharpness and clarity from the original tapes, including the dated echo processing for some center channel material performed by the small orchestra.

The composers would later return to the character and score the 1996 mini-series The Return of Sandokan.

© 2007 Mark R. Hasan